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Hercules: Release Notes
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<h1>Hercules Release Notes and Known Issues</h1>
<a name=4.8></a>
<hr noshade>
<h2>Release notes for <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/releases/tag/Release_4.8">SDL Hyperion 4.8</a>
</h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt><u><i>Experimental</i></u> &nbsp;z/Architecture Vector Registers Support
<dd>
<p>
All zVector instructions have now been coded and lightly tested and appear to be functioning
normally. Nevertheless, Vector Facility support is still considered to be <i><b>experimental</b></i>
given that this feature is brand new to Hercules and has only been <i>very lightly</i> tested.
</p>
<dt>Message-Security-Assist Extensions 5 and 7
<dd>
<p>
Message-Security-Assist Extensions 5 and 7 provide a cryptographically secure deterministic
random number generator (DRNG) and a true random number generator (TRNG) through the PRNO
instruction. On real hardware, entropy for the TRNG is obtained using sources external to
the CP. Data obtained from the TRNG is intended to be used to seed the DRNG. Both facilities
are now provided by Hercules. However, the Hercules implementation is not based on the
algorithms described in "z/Architecture Principles of Operation" (SA22-7832-13) but on its
internal CSRNG implementation already being in use for Message-Security-Assist Extension 3.
This internal implementation relies on the on the host system's RNG capabilities. Most
modern host operating systems support cryptographically secure random number generation,
namely the BCrypt API as implemented on Windows and the /dev/(u)random implementations
on Linux and macOS.
</p>
<dt>(description...)
<dd>
<p>
(details...)
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</p>
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</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<a name=4.6></a>
<hr noshade>
<h2>Release notes for <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/releases/tag/Release_4.6">SDL Hyperion 4.6</a>
</h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>SECURITY: New "\" (backslash) SCP reply prefix to suppress echoing of reply text
<dd>
<p>
Previously, when running a guest that uses the HMC for communicating with the user,
the text for each reply was always logged to the HMC as-is:
<blockquote>
<pre>
08:35:19.528 Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS s390x sclp_line0
08:35:19.638 s390x login:
08:56:15.453 HHC00160I SCP command: hercules
08:56:15.556 hercules
<b>08:56:15.776 Password:
08:56:17.357 HHC00160I SCP command: <i><u>hercules</u></i></b>
08:56:18.367 Last login: Sat Jan 28 11:31:16 EST 2023 on sclp_line0
08:56:48.327 Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-200-generic s390x)</pre>
</blockquote>
As this was deemed to be a security exposure when the reply contained sensitive
information such as a user's password, a new SCP command prefix was created to
prevent the echoing of the SCP reply. Beginning with this release of SDL Hercules
Hyperion, the SCP reply prefix '\' (backslash) should be used for replies that
you do not want to be written to the screen or logfile:
<blockquote>
<pre>
17:50:53.980 Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS s390x sclp_line0
17:50:54.089 s390x login:
17:51:39.281 HHC00160I SCP command: hercules
17:51:39.389 hercules
<b>17:51:39.689 Password:
17:51:43.265 HHC00160I SCP command: <i>(<u>suppressed</u>)</i></b>
17:52:29.270 Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-200-generic s390x)</pre>
</blockquote>
As you can see, the reply is not echoed when the '\' (backslash) SCP reply prefix
is used instead. Rather, the reply text is instead replaced with the message text
"(suppressed)". This prevents the logging of sensitive information <i>(such as
passwords)</i> to the screen and logfile.
</p>
<dt>Better HMC message handling for Linux guests
<dd>
<p>
Previously, when running a s390x Linux guest, boot progress messages would appear
garbled (badly formatted) when logged to the HMC:
<blockquote><pre>
20:03:20.579 Welcome to 1mUbuntu 18.04.6 LTS 0m|
20:03:20.580
20:03:20.580 77.148546! systemd 1!: Set hostname to <s390x>.
20:03:22.494 HHC00004I Control program identification: type LINUX, name UBUNTU, sysplex 18 04 6, level 40F00
20:03:26.059 0;32m OK 0m! Reached target User and Group Name Lookups.
20:03:26.059 0;32m OK 0m! Created slice System Slice.
20:03:26.060 0;32m OK 0m! Listening on fsck to fsckd communication Socket.
20:03:26.060 0;32m OK 0m! Listening on Journal Socket.
20:03:26.060 0;32m OK 0m! Listening on Syslog Socket.
20:03:26.061 82.621379! random: systemd: uninitialized urandom read (16 bytes read)
20:03:26.061 82.621788! systemd 1!: Reached target User and Group Name Lookups.</pre>
</blockquote>
Beginning with this release of SDL Hercules Hyperion, efforts are made to more
properly parse the screen messages that Linux is issuing so that they can appear
on the HMC in a much more readable format:
<blockquote><pre>
15:17:37.374 Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS!
15:17:37.374
15:17:37.393 [ 74.041881] systemd: Set hostname to <Ubuntu180403>.
15:17:38.286 HHC00004I Control program identification: type LINUX, name UBUNTU, sysplex 18 04, level 40F00
15:17:40.303 [ 76.951718] random: crng init done
15:17:42.653 [ OK ] Started Forward Password Requests to Wall Directory Watch.
15:17:42.653 [ OK ] Created slice User and Session Slice.
15:17:42.654 [ OK ] Created slice System Slice.
15:17:42.654 [ OK ] Listening on fsck to fsckd communication Socket.
15:17:42.655 [ OK ] Listening on Journal Socket (/dev/log).
15:17:42.655 [ OK ] Listening on Journal Audit Socket.
15:17:42.655 [ OK ] Listening on LVM2 metadata daemon socket.
15:17:42.656 [ OK ] Created slice system-serial\x2dgetty.slice.
15:17:42.656 [ OK ] Listening on udev Kernel Socket.
15:17:42.656 [ OK ] Listening on Syslog Socket.
15:17:42.656 [ OK ] Reached target User and Group Name Lookups.</pre>
</blockquote>
<i><u>Please be aware</u></i> that in order for s390x Linux's messages to be
properly parsed by Hercules you should use a Hercules
<a href="hercconf.html#CODEPAGE"><code><b>CODEPAGE</b></code></a>
mapping that matches the same code page that your s390x Linux guest actually uses.
For <i>(most?)</i> s390x Linux guests this is usually code page "<b>819/500</b>".
<i>(Other code pages may also work, but probably not as well as 819/500.)</i>
</p>
<dt>NEW: "Trace to File" support
<dd>
<p>
Beginning with this release of SDL Hercules Hyperion, you can now have debug
tracing (e.g. instruction and/or CCW tracing) written to an external file
instead of it always being written to the HMC panel <i>(which is incredibly
inefficient)</i>. Tracing to an external trace file greatly decreases the
Hercules overhead involved with debug tracing, thus allowing your guest to run
<i>significantly</i> faster than otherwise when debug tracing is active.
</p>
<p>
Additionally, a much finer grained selection of information can be printed
from the resulting trace file by means of the new 'tfprint' utility. Please
refer to the 'tfprint' utility's help display for information regarding the
many options available for choosing what trace information you wish to print.
Enter "help tf" for more information regarding the "Trace to File" command
itself.
</p>
<dt>NEW: Sockdev socket punch support
<dd>
<p>
SDL Hercules Hyperion now supports socket punch devices in a manner identical to
its current support for socket printer devices, thereby allowing remote spooling
of card punch data. Simply specify the 'sockdev' option for your
<a href="hercconf.html#cardpch">Card punch</a> device in exactly the same manner
as you would for a socket printer device.
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<a name=4.4.1></a>
<hr noshade>
<h2>Release notes for <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/releases/tag/Release_4.4.1">SDL Hyperion 4.4.1</a>
</h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>CCKD compressed dasd Locate Record bug found and fixed
<dd>
<p>
A potentially serious long standing bug in Hercules's compressed CKD (i.e. CCKD/CFBA/CCKD64/CFBA64)
dasd emulation logic was recently discovered and quickly fixed. Due to the natue of the bug,
Locate Record channel commands (opcodes X'47' or X'E7') would incorrectly prematurely fail in
an unusual way causing unexpected guest behavior <i>(e.g. the guest might end up looping or hanging
waiting for the I/O to complete for example. See e.g. GitHub Issue
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues/464">#464</a>).</i>
</p>
<p>
Please note however that due to the nature of this bug, damage to your emulated dasd images
<i><b><u>could never occur</u></b></i>. The bug would only cause the guest's I/O to unexpectedly
fail or never finish at all. The integrity of the actual Hercules emulated dasd image file would
remain intact. Also note that this bug existed <i>only</i> in the "CCKD" compressed dasd image
handling logic, and <i>not</i> in the regular non-compressed "CKD" dasd handling logic. Regular
uncompressed CKD dasd images were unaffected by this bug and Locate Record would behave correctly.
</p>
<dt>Real address also shown during instruction tracing
<dd>
<p>
During instruction stepping/tracing ('<code>t+</code>' or '<code>s+</code>' Hercules commands),
when the address of the instruction's operand is a virtual address, the corresponding translated
real address is now also shown when possible
(e.g: &nbsp;<code>HHC02326I CP00: V:20012CD8:R:7FFF3CD8:K:06=00000000 00000000 ........</code>)
</p>
<dt>Change in format of reported version
<dd>
<p>
Hercules now reports its version using the format "V.M.R.nnnnn-SDL-ghhhhhhhh"
where V.M.R is the major Version, Modification and Revision level (e.g. 4.4.1),
nnnnn is an ever increasing internal build number (to ensure strictly sequentally
ascending version strings), and hhhhhhhh is the first eight characters of the hash
of the most recent commit made to the git source code repository <i>(which identifies
<u>exactly</u> which fixes/changes are present in your build and which are not,
which is vitally important for bug reporting and problem analysis purposes).</i>
</p>
<p>
For between release development builds the format is "V.M.R.nnnnn-SDL-DEV-ghhhhhhhh"
which is identical to the new format but with the extra "DEV-" string to indicate
the build is not an official release build but rather is a privately/manually built
intermediate development build.
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<a name=4.4></a>
<hr noshade>
<h2>Release notes for <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/releases/tag/Release_4.4">SDL Hyperion 4.4</a>
</h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>New <code>-o</code>, <code>--output</code> and <code>--logfile</code> command-line options
<dd>
<p>
New command-line options are now available to make the creation of a log file much easier
and less error prone, which is important for bug reporting and problem analysis purposes.
Refer to the
"<a href="hercinst.html#arguments"><b>Command line arguments</b></a>"
section of the
"<a href="hercinst.html">Installation and Operation</a>"
web page for more information.
</p>
<dt>Unreliable operation may occur in certain circumstances when Hercules is built with some versions of the GCC compiler
<dd>
<p>
During development of Hercules Version 4.4 it was noticed Hercules would sometimes
experience unreliable operation under certain conditions when built with certain
versions of the gcc compiler. The unreliability <i><u>seems</u></i> to most typically
occur <i>(but may not be limited to)</i> when a z/Architecture or ESA/390 guest is IPLed
under a z/Architecture or ESA/390 VM (i.e. z/VM or VM/ESA). We believe the problem
has since been resolved, but are not 100% certain about that.
</p>
<p>
<i>Therefore,</i> if you plan to run an SIE operating system (e.g. VM/ESA or z/VM) as
your primary guest under Hercules, we recommend, purely as a precaution, that you build
Hercules using the <b>clang</b> compiler and <i>not</i> gcc.
</p>
<p>
Please refer to
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues/437">GitHub Issue #437</a>
for the latest status regarding this particular issue.
</p>
<dt>Improvements to building Hercules on non-Windows platforms
<dd>
<p>
Significant efforts have been made to make building Hercules on non-Windows systems
(e.g. Linux) easier and more reliable. Please refer to the README for Bill Lewis's
highly recommended "<b><a href="https://github.com/wrljet/hercules-helper">Hercules-Helper</a></b>"
repository for more information.
</p>
<dt>Unresolved bug in PFPO instruction
<dd>
<p>
The PFPO (Perform Floating Point Operation) instruction contains a (minor?)
unresolved bug in its handling of the EXTENDED DFP TO LONG HFP operation
that <i><u>seems</u></i> to only occur when the value being converted has more
than 31 digits in its fractional component. Refer to
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues/407#issuecomment-892830186">GitHub Issue #407</a>
for more information.
</p>
<p>
This bug is currently the only one known to exist in the PFPO instruction, but given
that a comprehensive test suite still does not exist yet for the PFPO instruction
(such a test suite is still in development), other undiscovered bugs may also exist.
Until such time as a thorough PFPO test suite can be completed, the PFPO instruction
should be considered experimental.
</p>
<dt>TXF (Transactional-Execution Facility) support is now mostly complete
<dd>
<p>
While <u>still considered experimental</u> <i>(since it is not yet 100% complete)</i>,
the Hercules implementation of the z/Architecture "Transactional-Execution Facility" feature
is largely complete and considered to be reliable. There are still a few items that
have not been implemented yet (such as tracing (i.e. PER) support), but on the whole,
extensive testing has demonstrated it to be reliable enough for most everyday purposes.
</p>
<p>
Also note that while it is still considered experimental and incomplete, any
"<code>FACILITY ENABLE 073_TRANSACT_EXEC</code>" and/or
"<code>FACILITY ENABLE 050_CONSTR_TRANSACT</code>" configuration file statements
that you may currently have in your Hercules configuration file, are now no longer
needed. Beginning with Hercules version 4.4, both facilities are now enabled by default.
</p>
<dt>Preliminary SNA support
<dd>
<p>
Significant enhancements have been made to LCS device functionality to support
the SNA protocol. Preliminary documentation regarding its configuration and use
can be found in our
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.SNA.md">README.SNA</a>
readme document.
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<a name=4.3></a>
<hr noshade>
<h2>Release notes for <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/releases/tag/Release_4.3">SDL Hyperion 4.3</a>
</h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>Improved CTCE driver functionality.
<dd>
<p>
The CTCE device driver has been enhanced and improved, including changes to
the syntax of the device statement parameters, Please refer to the
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.NETWORKING.md">Hercules
Networking README</a> as well as to the actual
<a href="https://sdl-hercules-390.github.io/html/hercconf.html#CTCE">Hercules
Configuration File</a> web page itself for more information.
</p>
<dt>New "MSGCOLOR=DARK/LIGHT" panel option
<dd>
<p>
A new <code>MSGCOLOR</code> option has been added to the existing
<a href="https://sdl-hercules-390.github.io/html/hercconf.html#PANOPT"><code>PANOPT</code></a>
configuration file statement
that will colorize non-informational Error, Warning and Debug panel messages to make them more
noticable to the user (less likely to be missed). Users are <i>strongly encouraged</i> to enable
this new option in their configuration files.
</p>
<dt>Watchdog monitoring has been reinstated.
<dd>
<p>
Previously, Hercules had an internal "watchdog" monitoring thread that would
monitor all running CPUs to make sure they were functioning properly, and if
any of them were determined to be malfunctioning, a Machine Check Interruption
for the malfunctioning CPU would be presented to the guest in a vain attempt
to allow it to continue running. This functionality was removed in version
<a href="#4.2">4.2</a> however, due to it masking/hiding otherwise serious
bugs in the Hercules emulator.
</p><p>
Version 4.3 now re-introduces watchdog monitoring for malfunctioning (hung)
CPUs and other serious internal emulator errors (such as deadlock detection),
but does not otherwise notify the guest of the problem (i.e. no Machine Check
Interruption is presented), nor is any attempt made to allow the emulator to
continue. Instead, the problem is reported to the Hercules user via fatal
emulator error messages HHC00822S and/or HHC90024S, and the emulator is then
immediately terminated with a crash dump to be forwarded to the Hercules
development team for analysis.
</p><p>
For more information regarding crash dumps ("core files" on Linux), such as
how to enable their creation and how to analyze them when they occur, please
refer to GitHub Issue #199: <i>
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues/199">"How to
analyze a Linux "core" file (i.e. crash dump)"</a></i>.
</p>
<dt>EXPERIMENTAL Transactional-Execution Facility (TXF) support
<dd>
<p>
This release of SDL Hyperion includes preliminary <i><u>experimental</u></i>
support for the z/Architecture "Transactional-Execution Facility" (bits 73
and 50).
</p><p>
This support is known to be incomplete and not 100% functional yet (it still
has some problems, especially under SIE), so it is still considered to be
<i><u>highly experimental</u></i> at this stage. It seems to work well enough
to allow certain guest operating systems requiring it (such
as z/OS 2.4 for example) to successfully IPL and run though.
</p><p>
Because it is still considered to be experimental and under active development
however, it is not enabled by default. Therefore users wishing to take advantage
of it must first manually enable it in their Hercules configuration file via the
following two <a href="https://sdl-hercules-390.github.io/html/hercconf.html#FACILITY"><code>FACILITY</code></a>
configuration file statements:
</p><p><pre>
FACILITY ENABLE 073_TRANSACT_EXEC
FACILITY ENABLE 050_CONSTR_TRANSACT</pre>
</p><p>
Only when the feature has been fully completed and thoroughly tested however,
will it then be enabled by default. For the time being however, since it is
still under active development and considered to be experimental, it must be
manually enabled as described above.
</p><p>
If you decide to use it, Bug Reports would be <i>greatly appreciated</i>
by creating a NEW <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues">GitHub Issue</a>
describing the problem along with all supporting documentation. Thank you!
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<a name=4.2.1></a>
<hr noshade>
<h2>Release notes for <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/releases/tag/Release_4.2.1">SDL Hyperion 4.2.1</a>
</h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>CKD serial number support
<dd>
<p>
Version 4.2.1 of SDL Hercules Hyperion introduces support for assigning
serial numbers to CKD dasd devices. This is usually only a concern for
guests which care about the serial number field in the device's Node Element
Descriptor (NED) information returned by the RCD (Read Configuration Data)
CCW, such as z/VM SSI (Single System Image) configurations. For most
other guests the change is transparent.
</p><p>
The <code>dasdinit</code> utility now assigns a randomly generated serial
number for all CKD dasd images. For existing CKD dasds created with earlier
(older) versions of Hercules without serial number support, the CKD dasd's
serial number will always be zero.
</p><p>
However, if an all zero serial number is detected during Hercules's CKD
device initialization (indicating the dasd does not have a permanent serial
number), a random serial number value is generated and used instead.
Because of this, all older dasd images (created with an older version of
Hercules and thus always having an all zero serial number) will always appear
to have a completely different (unstable ever changing) serial number
each time Hercules is started.
</p><p>
To assign a permanent (stable never changing) serial number to a CKD dasd
image (including those created with older versions of Hercules) a new
dasd utility has been created called <b><code>dasdser</code></b>. Start
<code>dasdser</code> without any arguments for usage information.
</p><p>
The serial number that Hercules actually uses for a given CKD dasd
(whether internally generated or obtained from the actual dasd image file)
can also be overridden via a new
<a href="hercconf.html#ckdser"><code>ser=nnnnnnnnnnnn</code></a>
device configuration file statement option. This new option is supported
only for CKD dasd devices and not FBA dasd devices since FBA devices
don't support the RCD (Read Configuration Data) CCW opcode and thus do not
have any serial number.
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<a name=4.2></a>
<hr noshade>
<h2>Release notes for <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/releases/tag/Release_4.2">SDL Hyperion 4.2</a></h2>
<p>
<dl>
<a name=CCKD64></a>
<dt>CCKD64 Support
<dd>
<p>
Version 4.2 of SDL Hercules Hyperion introduces support for very large
Compressed CKD (CCKD) dasd image files, called <b>CCKD64</b>, which can
be much larger than 4GB in size. More information about <b>CCKD64</b>
can be found in the
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.CCKD64.md">README.CCKD64</a>
document in the source code distribution. Detailed CCKD64 <i>file format</i>
information can be found on the
"<a href="cckddasd.html">Compressed Dasd Emulation</a>"
web page.
</p>
<dt>SIGABEND Machine Check handler on Linux builds replaced with Crash handler
<dd>
<p>
The original designed "SIGABEND" handler on Linux builds that intercepted Hercules
abends (e.g. SIGSEGV, i.e. Hercules crashes, etc) and presented a Machine Check
Interruption to the guest in an attempt to allow Hercules and the guest to continue
running (in the hope that the guest would be able to either recover from the Machine
Check or be able to gracefully shutdown) has been removed since it served no valid
purpose other than to hide/mask otherwise very serious bugs in the Hercules emulator
making it nearly impossible to find or fix them.
</p><p>
Now, if Hercules crashes (due to a SIGSEGV, etc), the guest is no longer notified
of the event (a Machine Check Interruption does not occur) and Hercules makes no
attempt to recover or otherwise continue. Instead, it attempts to issue a message
to the Hercules user informing them of the crash and then requests that the host
perform default handling of the event (which is usually to create a "core" dump file
which can then be analyzed by gdb or by some other means to determine the cause of
the crash).
</p><p>
For more information regarding Linux core files, such as how to enable their creation
and how to analyze them when they occur, please refer to the following GitHub Issue:
<i>"<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues/199">How to analyze
a Linux "core" file (i.e. crash dump)</a>"</i> (#199).
</p>
<dt>Integrated Regina REXX support no longer provided by default
<dd>
<p>
For those who want integrated Regina rexx support in Hercules, you will
now have to explicitly request such support on your <code>./configure</code>
command by specifying the <code>'--enable-regina-rexx'</code> option. For
everyone else, integrated support for Regina rexx will <i>no longer</i> be
automatically provided by Hercules, even if it is installed in their system.
</p><p>
In other words, you can still have Regina rexx installed on your system
and use it as you normally would, but simply having it installed on your
system will now <i>no longer</i> cause Hercules to also provide integrated
support for it.
</p><p>
For more information refer to the
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.REXX.md">README.REXX</a>
document in the source code distribution.
</p>
<dt>PFPO (Perform Floating Point Operation) instruction
<dd>
<p>
Thanks to hard work of one of our developers, Hercules now has a <i>complete</i>
implementation of the PFPO (Perform Floating Point Operation) instruction.
<i>(previously we had no implementation at all!)</i>
</p><p>
Efforts are currently under way to develop a formal runtest PFPO instruction
verification test for the current implementation to prove that it fully complies
with the published architecture, but the effort has not been completed yet.
Nevertheless, the current implementation is <i>believed</i> to fully comply
with the Principles of Operation even though we can't yet prove that.
</p>
<dt>Enhanced VMFPLC2 VM/CMS tape utility
<dd>
<p>
The VMFPLC2 tape utility has been greatly enhanced and now supports the scan
and load functions, making it much easier to transfer files between the host
system and z/VM or VM/370 systems. Refer to the
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.VMFPLC2.md">README.VMFPLC2</a>
document for usage details.
</p>
<dt>System/370/390 Vector Facility has been re-disabled
<dd>
<p>
It was a mistake to enable the System/370 and System/390 Vector Facility
set of instructions in release 4.1. Hercules's implementation of the
facility only implements 26 of the required 180 instructions the facility
provides and thus is so incredibly incomplete as to be virtually unusable.
</p><p>
Given that virtually no one has ever complained about its unavailability
beforehand (and the interference it causes internally with the desired
proper functioning of the Hercules S/370 Extension pseudo-facility), it has
once again been disabled.
</p><p>
This is very likely to be a permanent setting given the extreme unlikelihood
of the facility ever being fully coded due to its unpopularity and the extreme
challenges posed by trying to code all of the missing instructions for a fully
compliant facility.
</p>
<dt>TCPIP (X'75') instruction integrated
<dd>
<p>
This instruction was developed by Jason Winter to allow the guest OS access
to the IP stack of the host OS. It is of particular importance to older
operating systems that do not support their own IP stack. It provides full
IPv4 networking capabilities to those systems.
</p><p>
Note that the TCPIP instruction doesn't fully comply with IBM's S/3x0, ESA/390
or z/Architecture specifications. For this reason it is not enabled by default.
File
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.TCPIP.md">README.TCPIP</a>
provides the information needed to enable the instruction.
</p>
<dt>Optional ASID parameter added to breakpoint/stepping commands
<dd>
<p>
The <code>b</code> (breakpoint) and <code>s</code> (stepping) commands
now support an optional <b><code>asid</code></b> (<b>A</b>ddress <b>S</b>pace
<b>ID</b>entifier) parameter. If specified, the breakpoint or stepping
will only occur if the instructions being executed are <i>both</i> within
the specified address range <i><u>and</u></i> are being executed by the
specified address space. If specified, the breakpoint or stepping will
<i>not</i> occur for any other address spaces even if the instructions are
within the specified address range. If the optional ASID is not specified,
breakpoints or steppings occurs normally as before (i.e. if the instruction
being executed is within the specified range).
</p><p>
For more information refer to the <code>help</code> command display
for the <code>b</code> and/or <code>s</code> commands (i.e. "help b", "help s", etc).
</p>
<dt>New PANOPT configuration file statement and command
<dd>
<p>
Release 4.2 introduces a new configuration file option called
<a href="hercconf.html#PANOPT"><code>PANOPT</code></a>
that controls how emulated device files are displayed on the screen. The
<code>NAMEONLY</code> option will display only the emulated device file's
base filename, whereas <code>FULLPATH</code> displays the device file's
full path like before.
</p>
<dt>New Diagnose F09 instruction
<dd>
<p>
Release 4.2 introduces a new Diagnose F09 instruction that is essentially
an enhanced version of the existing Diagnose F08 instruction providing
access to Hercules's internal instruction counter. For detailed usage
information please refer to the
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues/211#issuecomment-497233616">
final comment</a> in GitHub Issue #211:
<a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/issues/211">
"Diagnose F08 Improvement"</a>.
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<hr>
<a name=4.1></a>
<h2>Release notes for <a href="https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion/releases/tag/Release_4.1">SDL Hyperion 4.1</a></h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>External Packages
<dd>
<p>
Select source code and associated functionality has been moved out of
the Hercules repository and into separately maintained External Package
repositories. Refer to the
<a href="https://github.com/sdl-hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.EXTPKG.md">README.EXTPKG</a>
document for more information.
</p>
<dt>Minimum supported Windows platform is now Windows Vista
<dd>
<p>
The new minimum supported Windows platform is now Windows Vista. All
Hercules users still running older versions of Windows should upgrade
to at least Windows Vista or greater, with Windows 7 being preferred.
</p>
<dt>The ability to define process and thread priorities has been removed
<dd>
<p>
Previously, Hercules supported various commands/statements that allowed the
tweaking of Hercules's various internal thread priorities (HERCPRIO, CPUPRIO,
TODPRIO, etc). This ability has been removed. Such statements in your
configuration file will now cause a "deprecated and ignored" warning message
instead. You should remove all such statements from your configuration file.
</p>
<dt>ARCHLVL and FACILITY command changes
<dd>
<p>
The <code><a href="hercconf.html#FACILITY">FACILITY</a></code> command was completely
redesigned and rewritten in order to more properly support and enforce the concept
of prerequisite facilities (i.e. a facility presuming/requiring some other facility).
As part of this rewrite the ARCHLVL command functionality to enable/disable/query
facilities was moved into a new separate FACILITY command such that the ARCHLVL command
now only deals with setting/querying the architecture mode. To enable/disable/query
facilities, use the new FACILITY command.
</p><p>
Additionally, the facility names used in the <code>FACILITY </code> command to
enable, disable or query a facility have also been changed. All defined facilities
now begin with a 3-digit facility bit number in addition to their abbreviated
facility name. This was done to ensure the correct facility was being enabled or
disabled due to the similarity of some facility names. For example, the previously
named "ASN_LX_REUSE" facility is now named "006_ASN_LX_REUSE". Similarly, the
previously named "PFPO" facility is now named "044_PFPO".
</p><p>
For a detailed list of the new abbreviated (short) facility names,
use the "<code>FACILITY QUERY ...</code>" command.
</p>
<dt>"ASN and LX Reuse" now defaults to enabled for z/Architecture
<dd>
<p>
The "ASN and LX Reuse" facility (STFL bit 6) is now enabled by default
for the z/Architecture mode, as it should have been all along. It is
still disabled by default for the ESA/390 architecture mode however.
</p><p>
In earlier versions of Hercules it defaulted to disabled requiring those
running z/Architecture guest operating systems to have to manually add
an <code>FACILITY ENABLE 006_ASN_LX_REUSE</code> statement to their
configuration file. Such statements are now no longer necessary.
</p>
<dt>MAXCPU and NUMCPU statements
<dd>
<p>
The combination of <a href="hercconf.html#NUMCPU">NUMCPU</a> and
<a href="hercconf.html#MAXCPU">MAXCPU</a> controls the behavior of how many
CPU engines will be configured online upon startup and how many can be
configured online later. In previous versions this was controlled via
the NUMCPU statement and the compile-time constant 'MAX_CPU_ENGS'.
</p><p>
For compatibility with previous versions of Hercules, if MAXCPU is
not specified its value defaults to NUMCPU. If neither is specified
it defaults to 1.
</p>
<dt>HTTPROOT and HTTPPORT statements are now fully deprecated
<dd>
<p>
Any <code>httproot</code> or <code>httpport</code> statements are now
rejected as invalid statements. All users still using either statement
format in their configuration files must now replace all occurrences
with <code>http root ...</code> and <code>http port ...</code> instead.
</p>
<dt>New and improved CMPSC Compression Call 2012 instruction implementation is now the default
<dd>
<p>
The default implementation for the CMPSC Compression Call instruction
is now the new cmpsc_2012 implementation. The previous legacy implementation
no longer exists. Refer to the
<a href="https://github.com/sdl-hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.CMPSC.md">README.CMPSC</a>
document of the source code distribution for more information.
</p>
<dt>The sequence of certain configuration file statements is important
<dd>
<p>
The <code><a href="hercconf.html#ARCHLVL">ARCHLVL</a></code>
statement (previously called <code>ARCHMODE</code> for example, defines
the initial architectural mode of the system) should generally <i>precede</i>
(come before) any <code>FACILITY</code> statements that enable or disable
a given architectural feature.
</p><p>
For example: on certain IBM operating systems the z/Architecture "PFPO
Facility" must be enabled or the system will not IPL. While at the time
of this writing Hercules does not currently support the Perform Floating-Point
Operation (PFPO) Facility, the STFLE facility bit can nonetheless be
forcibly enabled anyway via the
<code><a href="hercconf.html#FACILITY">FACILITY ENABLE BIT44</a></code>
configuration file statement. Since the facility is a z/Architecture-only
feature however, your initial architecture must either be set to "z/Arch"
beforehand, or else you need to specify the optional
<code><em>[archlvl]</em></code> parameter on your FACILITY ENABLE BIT44 statement.
This usually means your "<code>ARCHLVL z/Arch</code>" statement must come
<i>before</i> your "<code>FACILITY ENABLE BIT44</code>" statement in your
configuration file. Otherwise the PFPO Facility would not get enabled.
</p><p>
With the introduction of limited automatic LPAR-mode/BASIC-mode switching
(see next item below), <code><a href="hercconf.html#LPARNUM">LPARNUM</a></code>
statements should follow <code><a href="hercconf.html#ARCHLVL">ARCHLVL</a></code>
statements if LPAR mode is truly desired for <code>ARCHLVL S/370</code>
(which is usually not the case).
</p><p>
The <code>ARCHLVL</code> and <code>LPARNUM</code> statements are currently
the only known configuration file statements whose sequence matters. The
order of all other configuration file statements should not currently matter.
This may change in the future however, so be sure to always carefully read
through the RELEASE NOTES (this document) with each new update to Hercules.
</p>
<dt>Limited automatic LPARNUM updating when setting certain architecture modes
<dd>
<p>
When <code><a href="hercconf.html#ARCHLVL">ARCHLVL S/370</a></code> is set,
<code><a href="hercconf.html#LPARNUM">LPARNUM</a></code> is now automatically
changed to <code>BASIC</code> (which also changes
<a href="hercconf.html#CPUIDFMT">CPUIDFMT</a> to <code>BASIC</code> as well),
and when <code>ARCHLVL z/Arch</code> is set, it is then changed back to the
default <code>LPARNUM 1</code> again (which also automatically changes the
<code>CPUIDFMT</code> back to <code>0</code> as well), but only when needed.
</p><p>
That is to say, the automatic switching to and from <code>LPARNUM BASIC</code>
(and <code>CPUIDFMT BASIC</code>) and <code>LPARNUM 1</code>
(and <code>CPUIDFMT 0</code>) only occurs when needed (and only when switching
between S/370 and z/Arch). If <code>LPARNUM</code> (and
<code>CPUIDFMT</code>) are already set to the expected values they will not
be changed. When <code>ARCHLVL ESA/390</code> is set however, <code>LPARNUM</code>
and <code>CPUIDFMT</code> are never changed from their current values.
</p><p>
This new behavior was introduced to eliminate the "surprise" factor that would
otherwise occur when, if the <code>LPARNUM</code> remained set to <code>1</code>
(or some other number), not doing so causes the STIDP (Store CPU ID) instruction
to be stored in an otherwise unexpected format. In most all situations when
a Hercules user sets <code>ARCHLVL S/370</code>, they are truly expecting the
<code>LPARNUM</code> and <code>CPUIDFMT</code> to be set to <code>BASIC</code>
such that the STIDP instruction then stores the CPU ID in the expected format.
</p><p>
For the unusual case where users actually <i>do</i> want to run a System/370
Operating System within an LPAR, you will need to manually re-set your
<code>LPARNUM</code> and <code>CPUIDFMT</code> values back to their numeric
values <i><u>after</u></i> setting <code>ARCHLVL S/370</code>. That is to say,
one should always follow their <code>ARCHLVL S/370</code> statement with a
<code>LPARNUM n&#124;nn</code> statement (and <code>CPUIDFMT</code> statement
too if needed) if LPAR mode for S/370 is truly desired.
</p>
<dt>More architecturally compliant Channel Subsystem implementation
<dd>
<p>
Hercules 4.x Hyperion's channel subsystem implementation now more closely
adheres to published and unpublished architectural specifications. It does
not precisely adhere to the complete specification but it does adhere much
more closely than ever before (and definitely more closely than the legacy
implementation still used in the older spinhawk 3.xx series of Hercules).
</p><p>
If you experience any anomalies in the behavior of your guest operating
system, verify that you are using architecurally valid/correct configuration
settings that your guest operating system expects.
</p><p>
Pay <i><u>particular</u></i> attention to your
<a href="hercconf.html#ARCHLVL">ARCHLVL</a>,
<a href="hercconf.html#LPARNUM">LPARNUM</a>,
<a href="hercconf.html#CPUIDFMT">CPUIDFMT</a>,
<a href="hercconf.html#CPUMODEL">CPUMODEL</a>,
<a href="hercconf.html#CPUSERIAL">CPUSERIAL</a>,
<a href="hercconf.html#CPUVERID">CPUVERID</a>,
<a href="hercconf.html#MODEL">MODEL</a>,
<a href="hercconf.html#PLANT">PLANT</a>
and
<a href="hercconf.html#MANUFACTURER">MANUFACTURER</a>
values since they typically have a direct impact on how
certain guest operating systems behave.
</p>
<dt>Configuration file statements and panel commands handled identically
<dd>
<p>
Most configuration file statements are now available as and processed as
panel commands. Most valid configuration file statements may now also be
entered as a panel command. Most panel commands are now also allowed as
configuration file statements. See the documentation for full details.
</p>
<dt>Improved ECPSVM Support
<dd>
<p>
Hyperion 4.x now provides a mostly complete ECPSVM CP/VM Assist
implementation. While still not 100% complete, support for many new
assists has been added and several bugs have been fixed. Refer to the
<a href="https://github.com/sdl-hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.ECPSVM.md">README.ECPSVM</a>
document for more detailed information.
</p>
<dt>Integrated Rexx support
<dd>
<p>
Rexx support was first added to Hercules by Jan Jaeger in 2010
and has been gradually enhanced over the years by both Enrico Sorichetti
and Jan Jaeger as well as a few other people too.
</p><p>
If you have <a href="http://www.rexxla.org">Rexx</a> installed on your
host and Hercules is built with the Rexx build option (the default for
the SDL version of Hyperion), then Rexx scripts
can be run directly from within the Hercules environment (i.e. directly
from the Hercules HMC command line via the Hercules <code>exec</code> command).
</p><p>
Rexx scripts, when run within Hercules via the 'exec' command, can
Address the HERCULES enviroment allowing you to issue Hercules commands
and retrieve the results via the builtin 'AWSCMD' Rexx function call.
</p><p>
For more information please refer to the new
<a href="rexx.html">Hercules Integrated Rexx Support</a> web page.
</p>
<dt>SHCMDOPT defaults change
<dd>
<p>
The defaults for the <a href="hercconf.html#SHCMDOPT">SHCMDOPT</a> have changed.
The old defaults were <code>ENABLE DIAG8</code>.
The new defaults are <code>DISABLE NODIAG8</code>.
This was done for security reasons.
</p>
<dt>SHCMDOPT option also controls Rexx EXEC command
<dd>
<p>
The <code>ENABLE</code> and <code>DISABLE</code> option of the
<a href="hercconf.html#SHCMDOPT">SHCMDOPT</a> command now also controls
the Rexx <code>exec</code> command as well as the <code>sh</code> command.
That is to say, the Rexx <code>exec</code> command is now properly treated
as a host shell command. Thus, enabling or disabling the execution of host
shell commands via the <a href="hercconf.html#SHCMDOPT">SHCMDOPT</a> option
now also enables or disables execution of the <code>exec</code> command as well.
This was done for security reasons.
</p>
<dt>Change to DIAG8CMD ECHO behavior
<dd>
<p>
The behavior of the <a href="hercconf.html#DIAG8CMD">DIAG8CMD</a> command's
<code>ECHO</code> and <code>NOECHO</code> options has changed. Previosuly
the echo/noecho option had a a direct impact on the data that was placed into
the Diagnose 8 instruction's response buffer. This has been fixed so that now
it does not.
</p><p>
Previously, specifying the ECHO option caused audit trail messages HHC01950I
and HHC01603I to also appear in the instruction's response buffer, whereas now
only the command's actual output is placed into the response buffer. The ECHO
option now properly controls <i><u>only</u></i> the issuing of the HHC01950I
and HHC01603I audit messages to both the panel and hardcopy logfile,
but does not otherwise impact in any way what is placed into the instruction's
response buffer, as was the original intent for this option.
</p>
<dt>3088, CTCI-W32, CTCT and VMNET support dropped
<dd>
<p>
Support for 3088, CTCI-W32, CTCT and VMNET devices has been dropped.
3088 Channel-To-Channel Adapter support (which was the original intent
of CTCT) has instead been replaced with Peter Jansen's vastly improved
Enhanced Channel-To-Channel (<a href="hercconf.html#CTCE">CTCE</a>) device
support, which provides true Extended mode Channel-To-Channel Adapter
capabilities, allowing you to use
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Resource_Serialization">GRS</a>
to connect multiple Hercules instances together in a type of
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Parallel_Sysplex">Sysplex</a>.
</p>
<dt>CAPPING support removed
<dd>
<p>
Previous versions of Hercules supported a "CAPPING" configuration statement
designed to purposely reduce performance to ensure that your MIPS rate never
exceeded the specified value. This functionality has now been removed.
</p>
<dt>New NETDEV configuration file statement
<dd>
<p>
A new <code>NETDEV</code> configuration file statement is now supported
to allow you to specify which host network adapter should be used by default
for Hercules communications devices. It only represents a default and can be
overridden on the device statements themselves. Refer to the documentation
for the "<code><a href="hercconf.html#NETDEV">NETDEV</a></code>" statement
for more information.
</p>
<dt>New "t+-" Automatic Tracing command
<dd>
<p>
A new "<code>t+-</code>" (tee-plus-minus) Automatic Tracing command has been
created that may prove to be helpful in capturing guest issues that occur
very early in the guest's IPL sequence. Refer to the "<code>help t+-</code>"
help display for more information.
</p>
<dt>Default tape AUTOINIT option is now ON (enabled)
<dd>
<p>
The <code><a href="hercconf.html#AUTOINIT">AUTOINIT</a></code> option
controls whether device files for emulated tape volumes should be
automatically created or not if they do not exist. The previous default
was <code>OFF</code>. The new default is <code><u>ON</u></code>.
</p>
<dt>Diagnose X'F14' support removed
<dd>
<p>
Hercules's Diagnose X'F14' functionality was designed to allow
a Hercules guest to call into any host system DLL (Dynamic Link
Library). Since its use (dubius to begin with) was determined to be
a potential security risk (and the code didn't appear to be used
anywhere anyway), support for it was removed.
</p>
<dt>System/370/390 Vector Facility instructions are now enabled by default
<dd>
<p>
Hercules has always supported the System/370 and System/390 Vector Facility
set of instructions but support for them was never enabled by default. This
has now been corrected.
</p>
<dt>Hercules S/370 Instruction Extension Facility
<dd>
<p>
A new Hercules S/370 Instruction Extension Facility has been implemented to
replace the functionality previously provided by the "s37x.dll" dynamically
loadable module. Please refer to the
<a href="https://github.com/sdl-hercules-390/hyperion/blob/master/readme/README.S37X.md">README.S37X</a>
document for more information.
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<hr>
<h2>Release notes for release 3.06</h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>Tape "AUTOMOUNT" support
<dd>
<p>
Starting with Hercules version 3.06 a new AUTOMOUNT option is available
that allows guest operating systems to directly mount, unmount and query
tape device filenames for themselves, without any intervention on the
part of the Hercules operator.
</p><p>
Automount support is enabled via the AUTOMOUNT configuration file statement.
</p><p>
An example guest automount program for VSE called "TMOUNT" is provided in
the util subdirectory of the Hercules source code distribution.
</p><p>
Briefly, the 0x4B (Set Diagnose) CCW is used to mount (or unmount) a file
onto a tape drive, and the 0xE4 (Sense Id) CCW opcode is used to query the
name of the currently mounted file.
</p><p>
For mounts, the 0x4B CCW specifies the filename of the file to be mounted
onto the drive. The file MUST reside in the specified AUTOMOUNT directory
or the automount request will be rejected. To unmount the currently mounted
file, simply do a mount of the special filename "OFFLINE".
</p><p>
To query the name of the currently mounted file, the 0xE4 CCW is used. Note
however that the 0xE4 (Sense Id) CCW opcode cannot be used by itself since
the drive may also already natively support the Sense Id CCW opcode. Instead,
it must be preceded by (command-chained from) a 0x4B CCW with a data transfer
length of one byte. The following 0xE4 command is the one that then specifies
the i/o buffer and buffer length of where the query function is to place the
device's currently mounted host filename.
</p><p>
In summary:
</p><pre>
MOUNT: X'4B', filename, X'20', length
UNMOUNT: (same thing but use filename "OFFLINE" instead)
QUERY: X'4B', buffer, X'60', 1
X'E4', buffer, X'20', buffersize</pre>
</p><p>
Again please refer to the provided TMOUNT program for a simple example
of how automount support might be implmented on a guest operating system.
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<hr>
<a name=3.05></a>
<h2>Release notes for release 3.05</h2>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>Use 'startgui' if starting GUI program via 'sh' command
<dd>
<p>
The 'conspawn' utility used to process 'sh' commands now recognizes a
specially designed keyword "startgui" to accomodate automatic starting
of Windows GUI applications via the .RC file or panel command-line.
</p><p>
If the first word following 'sh' is "startgui", then the "ShellExecute"
API is used to start the requested program rather than the 'system()'
API as otherwise.
</p><p>
The "startgui" keyword must always be used to start any Windows program
that is not a command-line program. Hercules, itself being a command-line
program, monitors the 'stderr' and 'stdout' pipes so it can log messages
received from either pipe directly to the Hercules console log. Programs
such as notepad however, because they are not command-line programs, do
not use stdout/stderr thus causing Hercules to hang if "start" is used
instead.
</p><p>
This rule applies regardless of how Hercules itself is started (i.e. via
HercGUI or directly via the command-line) and regardless of whether the
"start" command is wrapped in a batch file or not. That is to say, using
the Hercules command "sh batchfile foobar" to start your batch file which
then does "start notepad %1" still causes Hercules to hang until notepad
first exits. Instead, you should ask Hercules to "sh startgui batchfile",
and let the batchfile start notepad however it wants.
</p>
<dt>Real SCSI tape drive support
<dd>
<p>
Real SCSI tape drives used with Hercules must provide a certain minimum set
is "IBM compatible" support in their SCSI command set/behavior in order to
work properly with Hercules. Furthermore, the Hercules device-type used on
your device statement in your Hercules configuration file should match the
the level of support/behavior that they provide.
</p><p>
For example, all SCSI tape drives used with Hercules must provide the ability
to set variable-length blocks as well as long erase-gaps (long erase-gaps
allows new data to be appended to the end of existing data without having to
write a tape-mark to separate the new data from the old existing data first).
</p><p>
Another example would be using a model of SCSI tape drive that happens to
report physical block-id values in a format different from the way real IBM
mainframe tape drives report them. 3480/3490 tape drives for example report
their block-ids (used in Read Block Id and Locate CCWs) in a very specific
format wherein bits 1-7 of the high-order byte of the reported 4-byte block-
id indicates the tape's physical "segment" location of where the lower 22-
bit block number is physically located on the tape. (The block-id segment
is used to allow the tape drive to quickly position itself to the approximate
location where the desired block acually resides on the tape and thus allows
high-speed positioning for the Locate CCW).
</p><p>
If the model of SCSI tape drive you are actually using with Hercules does not
use this same block-id format however, then it cannot be used with Hercules
as a 3480 or 3490 model tape drive with specially defined options.
</p><p>
If the SCSI tape drive you are using reports its block-ids using a 32-bit
block-id value (the same way a 3590 model tape drive does), then similarly,
it should be defined to Hercules as a model 3590 device-type as well (since
that is how it is behaving with respect the format of the returned blockid
values). It you wish to define it in Hercules as a model 3480 or 3490, then
you will need to use specially defined options before it will work properly
as the model drive you wish it to emulate.
</p><p>
With all that being said, it should be noted that PARTIAL support for 3590
device emulation is possible with judicious use the aforementioned special
options, but full/complete 3590 support is unlikely due to lack of publicly
available documentation. Details regarding 3590 CCW handling is restricted
(confidential) IBM proprietary information, and is not normally available
outside of IBM. Not long ago IBM was required by US law to publish such
information, but unfortunately for Hercules, such is no longer the case.
</p><p>
For further information regarding use of SCSI attached tape drives with
Hercules and their associated specially defined options, please refer to
the section on SCSI tape drives in the Hercules's Device Configuration
documentation.
</p>
<dt>Internal thread priorities changed on Windows for platform consistency
<dd>
<p>
In order to ensure proper functioning of the TOD clock with older versions
of guest operating systems, the default values of Hercules's internal thread
priorities for the Windows version of Hercules were changed to be identical
to those used by all other supported platforms. Originally, the default
thread priority values for the Windows version of Hercules were:
</p><pre>
*** 3.04 (and prior) Default Priorities ***
Thread Priority Meaning
------- -------- ------------------------
HERCPRIO 0 Normal Process priority
DEVPRIO -8 Above Normal Thread priority
TODPRIO 0 Normal Thread priority
CPUPRIO 0 Normal Thread priority</pre>
</p><p>
which caused acceptable performance/functioning on most, but not all, guest
operating systems. Beginning with version 3.05 however, the prioriries now
default to:
</p><pre>
*** 3.05 (and later) Default Priorities ***
Thread Priority Meaning
------- -------- ------------------------
HERCPRIO 0 Normal Process priority
TODPRIO -20 Time Critical Thread priority
DEVPRIO 8 Below Normal Thread priority
CPUPRIO 15 Lowest Thread priority</pre>
</p><p>
which may on more modern guest operating systems (which handle the TOD clock
differently than do older less sophticated versions) cause a slight decrease
in overall performance. If such is the case, the original default priorities
(and thus the original behavior) can be obtained via addition of appropriate
HERCPRIO, TODPRIO, DEVPRIO and CPUPRIO control file statements with values
identical to the original version 3.04 default values.
</p>
<dt>Configuration file usability enhancements and Automatic Operator facility
<dd>
<p>
Additional configuration file usability enhancements have been implemented
in the form of a new 'INCLUDE' (and associated 'IGNORE') statement, allowing
configuration files to "include" statements from a different named file.
</p><p>
Additonally, a new "enhanced" symbolic substitution syntax is now also
supported. Refer to the Hercules "Configuration File" documentation for
further information and details.
</p><p>
A rather nifty "Automatic Operator" facility has also been implemented in
the current release as well. While not exactly a "configuration file
usability enhancement", it is nevertheless something we hope might prove
to be more useful/helpful to our many users. See the "README.HAO" document
for more information.
</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<hr>
<h2>Release notes for release 3.03</h2>
<p>Release date: 20 December 2005
<dl>
<dt>New device types 1052-C and 3215-C
<dd>
<p>The new integrated console printer-keyboard is emulated on the
hercules console. Commands are sent to the console by means of a command character.
(default '/', thus a logon command is sent by /logon)</p>
<dt>Message Security Assist
<dd>
<p>Starting from release 3.03 the glibcrypt library is no longer needed.</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<hr>
<h2>Release notes for release 3.02</h2>
<p>Release date: 11 December 2004
<dl>
<dt>ASN-and-LX-reuse facility
<dd>
<p>This is a new feature of z/Architecture which can cause problems with
certain versions of operating systems running in ARCHLVL=2 mode without
the so-called "Driver 55" fixes. To avoid such problems, specify
<code>ASN_AND_LX_REUSE DISABLE</code> in the configuration file. </p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<hr>
<h2>Release notes for release 3.01</h2>
<p>Release date: 30 November 2003
<dl>
<dt>Library modules and HTTP documents default directories
<dd><p>
An error in the 3.00 configuration script caused many users to have to
override the default modules and HTTP documents directory in the
Hercules configuration file, or by setting an environment variable. This
error has been corrected. Hercules also now reports the actual directory
that it uses by default for these files at startup time. If you specified
the MODPATH or HTTPROOT configuration file statements because you
encountered problems, you should examine the messages printed at startup to
see if the default directories are now correct, and remove the statements
if so.</p>
<p>In general, MODPATH and HTTPROOT should not have to be specified
except in unusual circumstances.</p>
<dt>Windows default directories
<dd>
<p>In conjunction with the fix above, the default directories of the
Windows distributed binaries have been changed. The new directories are
under C:\cygwin\usr\local (which is the same as /usr/local under the Cygwin
environment). No action is needed unless you have specified the MODPATH or
HTTPROOT configuration file entries; if so, see the previous note.</p>
<dt>Message Security Assist
<dd>
<p>Support for z990 crypto instructions is conditional on the presence of the
glibcrypt library.
When Hercules is BUILT, the development files for glibcrypt should be available.
When hercules is RUN, the runtime files for glibcrypt should be installed.</p>
<p>Depending on the level of glibcrypt used to *build* hercules, the associated
level of glibcrypt should also be present on the target machine. On systems
supporting shared library versioning, multiple levels of the glibcrypt
runtime libraries can be installed simultaneously, ensuring availability
of the z990 crypto instructions, regardless of the level of glibcrypt with
which hercules was initially built.</p>
<dt>CTC and LCS device numbers
<dd>
<p>CTC and LCS devices now <i>MUST</i> specify ALL addresses on the configuration
statement.
Previously (i.e. with version 3.00), only the first (even numbered) device
needed to be defined and Hercules would automatically define the odd numbered
device for you. Starting with Hercules version 3.01 however, you now need
to define BOTH devices, just like you did with versions prior to 3.00.
Once again, starting with version 3.01, you **MUST** define BOTH DEVICES.</p>
</dl>
<!-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
<hr>
<h2>Release notes for release 3.00</h2>
<p>Release date: 3 October 2003
<dl>
<dt>CTCI device changes
<dd>
<ul>
<li>The CTCI-W32 protocol is deprecated. You should use the CTCI
protocol instead.</li>
<li>The VMNET protocol is also deprecated. Not even its author uses it any
more. Every system on which Hercules is now prebuilt has the TUN/TAP
driver functionality available in one form or another, and it's much more
robust.</li>
</ul>
<p>Both of these will go away in a future release.</p>
<p>In addition, you <b>must not</b> define both even/odd CTCI device pairs in
your configuration file. You should <b>only</b> define the first even
numbered device. Hercules will automatically define the odd numbered device
for you. If you define the odd numbered device by mistake, an open error will
occur on that device. This is by design. See the README.NETWORKING document
for further details.</p>
<dt>Hercules Dynamic Loader support
<dd>
<p>Starting with version 3.00, Hercules now contains support for the dynamic
loading of certain modules upon startup on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.
This support should also work on any platform supported by GNU libtool. As a
result of this new feature, Hercules itself now no longer consists of just the
'hercules.exe' module by itself, but rather consists of both the 'hercules.exe'
program as well as whatever dynamic modules (DLLs) that accompany it.</p>
<p>As a result of this change, whenever you install a new version of Hercules,
you must ensure that you ALSO install the accompanying new versions of the
new dynamic modules as well. Attempting to use a version of Hercules with a
dynamic module that was not specifically built for that version will cause
loading of that dynamic module to fail.</p>
<p>You <b>cannot</b> mix versions of Hercules with differing versions of
dynamically loaded modules.</p>
<p>Ensure that your library path (set by the environment variable
LD_LIBRARY_PATH) set correctly such that it includes the directory of your
Hercules dynamic load libraries. If you see message <code>HHCCF042E</code>,
which indicates that the system is unable to locate necessary loadable
modules, this is likely your problem. This should not be necessary if you
have a binary download, but if you're building from source, especially if
you've previously installed a binary package, this should be the first thing
you do.</p>
<dt>ECPS:VM
<dd>
<p>Do not use ECPS:VM (See README.ECPSVM) in an AP or MP environment
in VM/370. If <code>AP=YES</code> or <code>MP=YES</code> is coded in DMKSYS
and the AP/MP control file is used to build the CP nucleus and
<code>NUMCPU</code> is set to more than 1 in the <code>hercules.cnf</code>
file, any of LOK001, LOK003 or other abends will occur. This occurs because
the Hercules ECPS:VM CP Assist implementation is not MP safe, and
particularly, attempts VM dispatching without holding necessary AP or MP
locks.</p>
<dt>Memory allocation on Windows
<dd>
<p>Due to the change in the "mainstor" memory allocation technique used by Hercules to
address a "double memory consumption" bug in Cygwin's malloc implementation,
some Windows Hercules users may experience an "out of memory" error whenever
Hercules is started with a large <code>MAINSIZE</code> configuration file
value:</p>
<p><code>HHCCF031S Cannot obtain nnnMB main storage</code></p>
<p>This error will most likely occur (if it does at all) for those users who
have manually adjusted their Cygwin <code>heap_chunk_in_mb</code> Windows
registry setting value (in order to allow them to specify a large
<code>MAINSIZE</code> value when running Hercules). If this problem does occur
(i.e. if you <b>do</b> happen to experience the above mentioned error with
this new release of Hercules), then either reduce your
<code>heap_chunk_in_mb</code> value (yes, that's correct: <b>reduce</b> it,
as in change it to a <b>smaller</b> value) or else remove it altogether (so
as to let it default).</p>
<p>A complete discussion of this issue is in the RELEASE.NOTES file
in the source distribution.</p>
<dt>Thread priority and other problems
<dd>
<p>There is a known problem with thread priority handling under Mac OS
X. The OS X threading model is different from the one classically used in
Linux. This causes failures to set the timer thread priority, and slow
performance as all of Hercules is set to a low execution priority. This
will be fixed in a future release. A workaround, for now, for slow
performance is to add the statement</p>
<p><code>CPUPRIO 0</code></p>
<p>to your Hercules configuration file.</p>
<p>A possibly related problem is that Hercules fails in random ways when
using the NPTL (new POSIX threads library) library under Linux.
This library is used by default in Red Hat 9, and possibly other systems.
If problems are encountered on a very recent version of Linux, try issuing
the command</p>
<p><code>export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.1</code></p>
<p>before starting Hercules.</p>
</dl>
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